II. The Hindu Tradition

 

The Devi who is Suddha-sattva pierces the three Lingas, and, having reached all the lotuses which are known as the Brahma-nadi lotuses, shines there­in in the fullness of Her luster.  Thereafter in Her subtle state, lustrous like lightning and fine like the lotus fiber, She goes to the gleaming flame-like Siva, the Supreme Bliss and of a sudden produces the bliss of Liberation. 

- Satcakra-nirupana

 

            According to Eliade, the oldest elaboration of mystical phys­iology is to be found in the sectarian "yogic Upanishads" which he dates at ca. 400 A.D.[i]  Unlike the thirteen principle Upanishads, these "minor" Upanishads outline detailed yogic procedures by which the goal might be attained.  Also new are the additions to the structure of the mystical body, although these later Upanishads still adhere to the general scheme presented in the older Upanishads.  The teachings may vary slightly according to the sectarian commitment, but in general it remains consistent.           

            With these yogic Upanishads, the later hatha yoga texts of Nath yogis, and the Tantras, the emphasis is transferred to the crown of the skull as the primary domain of the monistic principle.  Though several works still maintain that the heart is the "abode of Brahman," the progress of liberation makes its movement in the dir­ection of the crown of the head.  The terms brahmarandhra, "the hole of Brahman," and brahmadvara, "the door of Brahman", to desi­gnate an aperture in the top of the skull both illustrate this transition.[ii]

             The "channels of the heart" become the lotus of the heart and six other lotuses are now found to hang from the sprout of sushumna, which itself is now pictured as rising from the perineum to the brahmarandhra.  The channels are now referred to as nadis (nerves, arteries) and details as their routes and functions are given.

             The nadis are most frequently numbered at seventy-two thousand, though the Siva Samhita lists three hundred and fifty thousand and other works have varying numbers.  These nadis are said to be con­duits of prana, the psycho-physical vital energy.[iii]  Of the many nadis of the body, only fourteen are important and of these four­teen, only three concern the yogi in his sadhana.  These three, sushumna, pingala, and ida, are given a variety of names.  In keep­ing with the microcosmic-macrocosmic homologization of these tradi­tions, these three nadis are called fire, sun, and moon respectively.  Sushumna in particular has numerous names.

             Ida and pingala are pictured as both intertwining around as well as running parallel to sushumna.  In its upper reaches ida ends in the left nostril while pingala terminates in the right.  Some texts say that these two nadis begin in the two testicles, while others say that their origin is at the base of the spine where sushumna begins.  This juncture is thus called yukta-triveni because the three nadi rivers meet there.  At another junction between the eyes the two outside nadis join sushumna again at what is called mukta-triveni before separating and preceding to their respective nostrils.[iv]  Another channel that is directly related to our subject is a duct called sankhini which conducts nectar (amrta, soma) from the cranium to the hollow of the palatal region.[v]

             Of the three chief nadis, it is the central one, sushumna, that receives all the praise in mystical physiology.  Sushumna is sometimes further divided into finer nadis.  One account has brahma­nadi as the hollow surrounded by vaira nadi (also called citrini) and then by sushumna.[vi]  Nevertheless, reference is usually made to one medial nadi, and that one is by and large called sushumna.  At the base of sushumna lies the sleeping goddess kundalini, coiled like a serpent with her mouth covering "the door of Brahma," which in this case refers to the lower terminal of sushumna.[vii]   Kundalini is "the support of all practices of yoga."[viii]  It is the awakening of her that forms the essence of the psycho-physical sadhana. 

            The mouth of sushumna is also called the mula-knot, one of three major knots which inhibits the free flow of prana through sushumna.[ix]  Already mentioned is the knot of mukta-triveni, commonly called the ajna cakra, between and behind the eyebrows.  The other major knot occurs at the heart region, the anahata cakra.  The mula, anahata, and ajna knots are respectively called the knots of Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra.[x]   The Siva Samhita speaks of eight knots which bind all the nadis.[xi]  

            Situated along sushumna are various cakras (wheels, circles) of psychic energy.[xii] These are often referred to as lotuses.  While usually numbered at six or seven, the Vijnanabhairava mentions twelve centers of energy,[xiii] but as we will see, while most of these are the principle centers, the rest, though recognized in other texts, are regarded as minor and thus omitted in calculation.  Each of the principle cakras is associated with an element, an animal symbol, emotion, color, sanskrit letters, and a presiding deity. 

            Among the centers by far the most important is sahasrara which crowns the skull.  It is the "Abode of Bliss," the one-thousand petalled lotus.[xiv]   The Siva Samhita places it outside the body, illustrating its transcendent nature.  Among the minor centers, the most significant is the soma cakra, situated just below the sahasrara facing downwards.  It is also known as the moon and as with its macrocosmic counterpart, it is filled with ambrosia, the nectar of immortality.[xv] In the navel cakra (manipura) or at the mula cakra there resides the sun, where the goddess kundalini devours the moon's nectar as it falls from above.[xvi]  Of great significance in this downward flow is the vyoma cakra situated in the nasophar­yngeal cavity and doubtless the lower terminal point of the sankhini duct. 

            Though the paradigm of liberation in some texts regards the sahasrara as the final goal and abode of Brahman, now conceived of in sectarian terms, other texts still maintain the preeminence of the heart, and still others point to the ajna cakra.  The Brahma Upanishad maintains that the heart which is "in the form of a closed lotus-flower, with its head hanging down," is "the great abode of All."[xvii]  "Know that during jagrata [the waking state] it (dwells in the eye, and during svapna [the dream state] in the throat; during sushupti [deep sleep], it is in the heart and during turya in the head."[xviii]  The Dhyanabindu, Yogattatva, and Goraksa Sataka all maintain that the heart is the abode of Brahman. 

            Nevertheless, sometimes in the same works the ajna cakra receives equal emphasis, indicating a mysterious relationship be­tween the heart and the head as illustrated by the Brahma Upanishad's contention that while the heart is the seat of Brahman, the turya state (the "fourth" or superconscious state) is to be found in the head.  Says the Dhyanabindu Upanishad, "In the middle of the cave of the skull between the four doors shines Atma, like the sun in the sky."[xix]  Shankaracharya in his commentary on Bhagavat-Gita verse 8.9-10 which speaks of fixing the life-breath between the eyebrows has this to say: 

At first the mind is subdued in the lotus of the heart; then, by means of the up­going nadi, after gradually obtaining con­trol over the several stages of matter [the chakras?], the life-breath of the heart is drawn up and carefully fixed be­twixt the eyebrows.  By this means the wise man, the Yogin, reaches the Supreme Purusha, who is resplendent.[xx]

 

            Various pranas are said to have their seats in the cakras.  "The seat of prana is the heart; of the apana, anus; of the samana, the region about the navel; of the udana, the throat."[xxi]  The first two pranas are of primary concern to the yogi because "under the control of prana and apana, [jiva] moves up and down through the left and right paths (ida and pingala).  Because of restlessness, it is not perceived (clearly)."[xxii]  Prana moves upwards and apana moves downwards; uniting these two is the beginning of yoga.[xxiii] 

Also of strategic interest to the are the two bindus (drops), one white and equivalent to the nectar of the moon, the other red and found in the navel.[xxiv]  "The pale-white they call semen virile, the blood-red menstrual fluid (rajas)."[xxv]   "Bindu is Siva, rajas is Sakti; Bindu is the moon, rajas the sun; from the mingling of these two, verily, one obtains the highest state."[xxvi] 

            The essence of this yoga practice is union, the union of prana and apana, of pingala and ida, of sun and moon, of Siva and Sakti.  Already mentioned is the logic behind the uniting of prana and apana: because of the disturbance of restlessness created by these forces, the jiva does not understand its own reality.  The inter­connectedness of Prana (the life-force in general) and mind (citta) is the theoretical basis upon which the Yoga-Vasistha recommends breath retention.[xxvii]   Control Prana and the mind is controlled.  Patanjali says that "as a result of [breath control] the covering of the light dwindles away."[xxviii] 

            The passage of prana through the veins (nadis) gives rise to and maintains the mind.  "When the prana vibrates and is on the point of passing through the nerves, then there appears the mind full of its thought processes.  But when the prana lies dormant in the hollow of the veins, then there is no manifestation of mind..."[xxix]  Also meaningful to the underlying logic of uniting pingala and ida, sun and moon, is that these two nadis represents time, which is to be swallowed up by sushumna.  "Kala (time) is composed of day and night which are caused by (the rising and setting of) the sun and moon.  Kala is swallowed up by sushumna.  This is said to be a great secret."[xxx]  When Prana courses through sushumna, the mind becomes objectless and manonmani (mindlessness) is achieved.[xxxi] 

            The bindu that flows down from the moon is consumed by the sun of the navel and gives rise to the decay of the body.[xxxii]  The down­ward flow must be halted through the process of sadhana, proceeding against the current, the regressive process.  "The aim of the yogi is 'to carry his seed high'..."[xxxiii] 

The yoga practices of the Nath Siddhas is ulta or regressive...in the sense that it involves yogic processes which give a re­gressive or upward motion to the whole biological as well as psychological systems which in their ordinary nature possess a downward tendency.[xxxiv]

 

A more violent downward motion of the bindu essence occurs in orgasm, leaving the moon dry and empty.  Women, in the Nath tradition, are therefore spoken of as the tigress who enchants and steals a man's bindu. 

The breath of women dries up the body and youth vanishes day by day.  Foolish are the people who understand nothing and make pets of tigresses in every house; in the day the tigress becomes the world-enchantress and at night she dries up the whole body.  The milk is stolen and the tigress boils it... the essence of milk is thrown down on the ground and only a vacant vessel remains in the sky.[xxxv]

 

The yogi who is able to prevent the sun from consuming the bindu but instead drinks the nectar himself becomes freed from diseases, old age, and death and obtains supernatural powers.[xxxvi] 

Through the agency of kundalini shakti, the sun is united with the moon; "by moving Sakti, by vayu [prana] the rajas (is) impelled and united with bindu."[xxxvii]  When the sleeping kundalini is awakened, it rises, pierces the knot-cakra obstacles, draws into sushumna the body's pranas, thus giving rise to the manonmani state.[xxxviii]  In the Hathayogapradipika no mention is made of the union of Siva and Sakti.  Instead its goal is the samadhi that arises when Prana enters and courses through sushumna.  Says the Hathayogapradipika, "that state of equilibrium, the union of the two — jivatma and paramatma — in which there is complete loss of mental activity is known as samadhi."[xxxix]  Though the hatha yoga texts in general do not concentrate as exclusively on the union of Siva and Sakti as do the tantric texts, there is agree­ment that the highest attainment is to be had from union in the sahasrara.[xl]  The difference in emphasis of the hatha and tantric schools derives from the hatha yogin's commitment to a liberation that "means immortality first in a perfect body (siddha-deha) and then in a divine body (divya-deha).[xli] This later body is instru­mental in the attainment of Sivahood, the goal hatha has in common with both sakta and saivite tantrics. 

            The underlying logic of the union of Siva and Sakti as presented by Woodroffe in his explication of the Tantras is a complex model of the evolution of modifications of sakti-energy, which re­sults in the jiva's bondage to illusion, to be undone by a process of involution which is yoga.  "The Yoga-process is a return-movement to the Source which is the reverse of the creative movement therefrom."[xlii] 

            The tantric philosophy is a synthetic combination of Vedanta, and Yoga. In accordance with Vedanta it is monistic Samkhya, and Yoga.  In accordance with Vedanta it is monistic, rejecting any dualism between phenomena and the absolute.  The world is maya, "the form of the formless," identical to pure consciousness which is Siva.  The theory of the emergence of the world, its evolution, is taken from Samkhya, where the tantric notion of Sakti is substituted for the samkhyan prakrti, the ultimate material substance.  Yoga provides the sadhana, the process of dissolution (laya). 

          While classical Samkhya dealt exclusively with the evolution of the manifest world from the psychological perspective of the enmeshment of the purusha (consciousness), the Sakta model on top of this presents a cosmological scheme of creation.  For our purposes, however, it is the enmeshment and liberations of conscious­ness via psycho-physical manipulation that is of interest.  Detailed below, then, is a summary of the Sakta model of liberation as given in Woodroffe's The Serpent Power. 

            Before the emergence of the worlds, there is only pure con­sciousness, without a second.  Two words to denote the two aspects of this one reality are Siva and Sakti, the static and the dynamic.  Sakti as maya-sakti veils herself and thus limits consciousness, initiating the process that results in the arising of forms.  In Sakti lie all the collective samskaras, the karmic seeds, of all purushas.  It is the will to live and enjoy these seeds that spurs creation on its way. 

          In veiling itself, maya-sakti gives rise to duality.  Buddhi, the basis of ahamkara, the I-sense, first appears as "a state of mere presentation, consciousness of being only, without thought of "I" (ahamkara), and unaffected by sensations of particular objects (manas and indriyas).  It is thus impersonal jiva consciousness."[xliii]  Various stages of progressive differentiation lead to the dual state of 'I and This' as ahamkara arises.  At this stage the purusha has a vague and diffuse sense of a separate identity.  There is the experiencer, ahamkara, which then becomes possessed of desire to perceive or act and this is manas.  These three, buddhi, ahamkara, and manas are called the internal organ, antahkarana, by Samkhya, but sometimes simply referred to as mind by the Tantras.  Mind limits consciousness: "where there is no mind there is no limita­tion."[xliv]  Thus, the process of embodiment is founded upon Sakti as a "finitising" principle, whose modifications create the tattvas that restrict and enmesh pure consciousness in a world of illusory duality. 

            Directly connected with manas are the senses (indriyas) which are the gateways through which worldly experience is re­ceived.  The indriyas are not the sense organs by the mind operat­ing through them.  Manas is also connected with them insofar as it possesses the three functions of attention, selection, and synthe­sis of the senses.[xlv]  "Just as manas is necessary to the senses, the latter are necessary for manas.  For the latter is the seat of desire and cannot exist by itself.  It is desire to perceive or act, and therefore exists in association with the indriyas."[xlvi]  The indriyas are ten in number, divided into five "organs" which receive sensations, and five which are the re­active responses to these.  There are  

five organs of sensation or perception, or ear (hearing), skin (feeling by touch), eye (sight), tongue (taste), and nose (smell); and five organs of action, which are the reactive response which the self makes to sensation — namely, mouth, hands, legs, anus, and genitals, whereby speaking, grasping, walking, excretion, and procreation are per­formed, and through which effect is given to the jiva's desires.[xlvii]

 

The objects of sense-perception are in there "thatness" called tanmatras and in their physical presence termed mahabhutas.  The five tanmatras or subtle elements are smell, taste, sight, touch, and sound; the five mahabhutas or gross elements are earth, water, fire, air, and ether. 

The pure, quality-less (nirguna) consciousness which is Siva thus undergoes a limiting process via the agency of Himself as sakti.  Twenty-three tattvas evolve as the jiva is embodied.  Each tattva is, however, only a modification of Sakti which, as maya­sakti, is the name and form of all things.  When Sakti has mani­fested "the last and grossest tattva ('earth') — that is, solid matter — there is nothing further for Her to do.  Her creative activity then ceases, and She rests.  She rests in Her last emanation, the 'earth' principle.  She is now kundali-sakti, whose abode in the human body is the Earth center or muladhara cakra."[xlviii]  Here Sakti lies dormant, asleep, as potential infinite power.   

            Each of the twenty-three tattvas has a psycho-physical correlate in the invisible cakra body.  The first five cakras correspond to twenty of the twenty-three tattvas, while the sixth cakra, is equivalent to antahkarana.  Above ajna dwells consciousness prior to maya. 

            The purusha is never without a body unless liberated.  It has three bodies which it inhabits in the three states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.  From the three lower cakras is evolved the gross or physical body of the waking state.  The center of the subtle body of dream-consciousness is ajna, composed of all the tattvas with the exception of the five mahabhutas.  Instead of the outer world, the jiva focuses on inner objects in the manas cakra, immediately above and the seat of sensation in dream and hallucination.  In deep sleep the jiva resides in the causal body, located in the area between ajna and sahasrara.  Two more states are said to be beyond this, the 'fourth' (turya) and 'beyond the fourth' (turiyatita).  In these two states the jiva is said to inhabit the 'great causal body.' Passing beyond these the jiva is merged in Siva. 

            Though Sakti as kundalini is said to be asleep in the earth center at the base of the spine, She nevertheless supports the body's functioning as the pranas that animate it.   

Just as an atom consists of a static center round which moving forces revolve, so in the human body kundalini in the 'earth-cakra' is the static center round which She in kinetic aspect as the forces of the body works.  The whole body as Sakti is in ceaseless movement.  Kundalini-sakti is the immobile support of all these operations... [She] is in the mula­dhara in a state of sleep — that is, latent activity looking outwards.  It is because She is in this state of latent activity that through Her all the outer material world functions of life are being performed by man.[xlix]

 

Kundalini's sleeping condition is responsible for man's own sleep, "and it is for this reason that man is engrossed in the world, and under the lure of maya takes his body and egoism to be his real Self, and thus goes round the wheel of life in its unending cycle of births and deaths.  It is through the influence of Kundalini who dwells within him that the jiva thinks the world to be differ­ent from himself and the Brahman.  Her sleep in the muladhara, is, therefore, the bondage of the ignorant."[l]  At the end of this evolutionary process, then, are the worlds and the infinite separate jivas that inhabit them who, under the spell of maya, undergo endless transmigrations characterized by disease, old age, and death. 

            The means utilized to undo the bondage that has enmeshed the jiva is founded in reversing the outward turned process of manifest­ation to return to the Source using the same force that is responsi­ble for bondage.  A process of dissolution is thus initiated.  Just as in the maha-pralaya, the great dissolution, the universe as Sakti is absorbed back into Siva, so in the yoga of laya, kundalini rises to union with Siva in the sahasrara, thus annihilating all limita­tions and dissolving the world into Brahman. 

            Upon the awakening of kundalini, a process of involution is initiated in which kundalini reabsorbs the tattvas of each cakra on Her march up sushumna.  Awakened to the desire for union with Her spouse, Siva, she moves upward, drawing in the saktis that maintain the body, rising higher and higher.  Kundalini Herself becomes subtler and subtler as she absorbs the indriyas, tanmatras, and mahabhutas of each progressively subtler cakra.  Drawing back the modifications of mind and form into Herself, she dissolves egoism at and enters the domain of pure consciousness at the sahasrara.  The liberation is not complete, however, until kundalini remains at sahasrara instead of returning to the earth cakra, which She tends to do in the initial stages. 

            The method of awakening kundalini includes various physical exercises, but relies predominately on breath manipulation (pranayama).  Through breath retention (kumbhaka) heat is generated and this arouses the slumbering goddess.  The heat arises when apana and prana are diverted from their usual opposing courses and made to unite in the navel. 

When the apana rises up and reaches the sphere of the fire (the navel region), the flames of the fire blaze forth, fanned by the vayu (apana).  Then, as the fire (heat) and the apana reach the prana, which is warm by nature, the fire (warmth) of the body is extremely intensified.  By that [the] sleeping kundalini is agitated and awakened and straightens up just as a she-serpent (straightens up) with a hiss when beaten by a stick.[li] 

 

In the hatha yoga texts there seems to be a distinction made be­tween, on the one hand, the kundalini entering into sushumna, and on the other, prana entering the same.  Both goals, it seems, are achieved via the same practices. 

            To the end of awakening kundalini or removing the obstacles that prevent prana from entering sushumna, the hatha yoga texts speak of asanas, mudras, bandhas, the "six acts," and, of course, pranayama.  Asanas are postures; mudras are certain bodily manipulations, bandhas are muscular contractions where certain organs are locked into a position or contracted; and the six acts are physical cleansings that only obligate those who have an excess of fat or phlegm.  All of these disciplines have as their aim either the removal of impurities and other obstacles that give rise to dis­ease and prevent the prana from being manipulated or the saving of the moon's nectar from the navel's sun. 

            The purification of the nadis is essential in the beginning.  "It is only when the whole group of nadis which are full of impur­ities gets purified that the becomes capable of regulating Prana."[lii]  Generally, it is said that it takes three months to achieve purification.  The Siva Samhita speaks of four stages in pranayama, arambha, ghata, parichaya, and nishipatti.[liii]   Arambha is achieved when the yogi can retain his breath for an hour and a half at a time.  The ghata stage follows upon retention for three hours.  Parichaya is reached when the pranas from ida and pingala enter into sushumna and pierces the six cakras.  Nishpatti is the consummation.  "The yogi, having destroyed all the seeds of karma which existed from the beginning, drinks the waters of immortality."[liv]  

            Kumbhaka forces the prana downwards, but in order for it to be united with apana at the navel, the apana must be forced upwards.  The siddhasana posture facilitates this by fixing the heel of the foot against the perineum, but more particularly the mulabhanda (contraction of the sphincter muscle) is utilized to pull the apana upwards.  "Press­ing the perineum with the heel and raising apana, the anus is to be contracted.  By contraction (of anus) the apana vayu, of which the natural course is downwards, is forcefully directed upwards."[lv]  This practice gives rise to the heat that agitates the kundalini.

Several procedures are utilized to prevent the navel from consuming the moon's nectar.  Jalandhara-bandha blocks the down­ward flow of the nectar by pressing the chin to the breast.[lvi]  By standing on one's head, the navel is cheated of its food.[lvii]   The most respected method, however, is khecharimudra.  In this practice the frenum of the tongue is cut so that the tongue is able to reach back into the nasopharyngeal cavity.  The yogi is thus able to drink the nectar himself.  Even if "embraced by a woman," the bindu is not discharged.[lviii]  In the event that the bindu was to move down to the pelvic region, the Hathayogapradipika goes on to say, it would be carried upwards by the force of mulabhanda.[lix] 

            This manipulation is especially important in tantric rituals which insist upon the retention of semen (coitus reservatus).  Tantric practices of the "left-hand" variety which utilize sexual contact under tantric "laboratory" conditions presuppose mastery of hatha yoga training.[lx]  The left-handed pancatattva practice is a long and complicated ritual involving, above all, the repe­tition of certain mantras, the mental worship of the world as imbued with divinity, and multiple visualizations, including the imagination of the yogic body, which the sadhaka imagines himself to possess.[lxi]  At the climax of the ritual, the sadhaka joins with his sakti (female partner regarded as goddess) in sexual communion, all the while repeating mantras and imagining the coitus to be the union of Siva and Sakti.

A. Bharati maintains that the sadhaka releases his semen at the end of the ritual, but this is a minority opinion.[lxii]  Bharati argues that the potency of the ritual lies in the importance of sacrifice, and thus even the semen must be surrendered.  But the importance given to the hatha yoga regimen and the prevailing fear of emission in Indian society argues for retention.  One authority on Indian Tantra explains the logic of the ritual of union as follows: 

Tantra asana [or ritual union] is a mode of transcending the human condition; through it the gross sexual energy of man and woman can be transformed into superpotency by total in­tegration of opposing polarities.  Through planned meditative practices of sexo-yogic asanas, Kundalini, the psychic force lying dormant in the human body, is roused towards its upward move from Muladhara Chakra to the brain center, Sahasrara, to unite with cosmic consciousness.  The tantrikas believe that by manipulating this energy inherent in gross sex one can find creative powers to ascend to the spiritual plane, a plane of transcendental union for the realization of pure joy (ananda).  The tantrikas have experienced and tasted the power of sex in order to return to full awareness of the primal state of oneness.[lxiii] 

 

The hatha yogins are distinguished from the tantric sadhakas by their quest for the perfect body which, purified of all defile­ment, is an indestructible spiritual body and is instrumental in the attainment of para-mukti.[lxiv]  Therefore, the hatha yogins seek to remove the impurities of the body through pranayama and other disciplines while also seeking to neutralize the process of aging by preventing the navel's sun from consuming the moon's nectar.  ­Bringing a halt to the fluctuations of the mind is also recognized by hatha yoga as instrumen­tal in attaining the highest state and is also sought by various manipulations, foremost being the entry of prana or kundalini in­to sushumna.  The Hathayogapradipika presents its hatha yoga practices as only preliminary to yoga which it equates with laya, the best of which is nadopasana, or concentration on the internally aroused sound nada.  However, success in nadopasana is described in terms of piercing the knots of sushumna so that prana may rise freely above ajna.[lxv] 

The ajna center is of pivotal importance in tantric sadhana as described by Woodroffe.  Being the home of the tattvas of mind, antahkarana, it is the major stronghold of maya, above which lies freedom.[lxvi]  To the sadhaka, the yogic body is a hierarchically structured ladder, which leads from the earth of muladhara to the vast ocean of sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss) in the sahasrara.  In the union of Siva and Sakti is found the highest good, liberation.  While the hatha yogins seek liberation in an embodied state (jivan-mukti), the tantricas seek the bodiless, unconditioned "state" of Siva, without concern for the perfection of the body. 

While this completes the survey of the two major Hindu schools of psycho-physical manipulation, Tantra and hatha yoga, it is here appropriate to include one other unique perspective in the Hindu tradition, that of the South Indian sage Ramana Maharshi. Maharshi lived in the early half of this century and is said to have awakened to the Self or Brahman at the early age of seventeen in 1891.  A. Bharati called him "a mystic of the first order."[lxvii]  Though a brahmin of a very conservative and orthodox tradition, he nevertheless spoke on the subject of yoga and meditation.  His discourses on mystical physiology are quite interesting as they provide a link between the Upanishadic recognition of the heart as the abode of Brahman and the later yogic emphasis on the saha­srara as the dwelling of the monistic principle. 

Ramana Maharshi points out that the yogis and tantricas assume that the sahasrara is the highest center because they be­lieve that since the life-current enters the body from the crown and there effects separation, union must come about through rising up the reverse way.[lxviii]   Kundalini is utilized to bring about this reversal.  The samadhi that thus ensues is incomplete, according to Maharshi, because  

The vasanas [samskaras], that is the latencies, are not however destroyed.  The yogi is there­fore bound to wake up from the samadhi, because release from bondage has not yet been accomp­lished.  He must still try to eradicate the va­sanas in order that the latencies yet inherent in him may not disturb the peace of samadhi.  So he passes down from the sahasrar to the heart through what is called the jivanadi, which is only a continuation of the Sushumna.  The Sushumna is thus a curve.  It starts from the solar plexus, rises through the spinal cord to the brain and from there bends down and ends in the heart.  When the has reached the heart, the samadhi becomes permanent.  Thus we see that that the heart is the final center.[lxix] 

 

It is the heart, which Maharshi locates on the right side of the chest, that is the ultimate abode of the Self.

The reference to a specific location for the heart is recog­nized by Maharshi to be a bodily sign localized by the sage "with­in the limits of the physical body by a sort of feeling-recollect­ion made while he is with bodily awareness."[lxx]   In truth the body is like a drop of water in an infinite sea, which the Self becomes associated with through the heart knot.  The rays of consciousness enter at the heart, animating the body, creating the ego-centered "I"- thought.  The light of active consciousness rises from the ­heart to the sahasrara via the amrita or atma nadi.  "As the sun gives light to the moon, even so this Heart gives light to the mind."[lxxi]   The light then spreads through the body, giving rise to attachment to it and the worldly experience that thus arises.

In deep sleep and other intense experiences when thought loses itself in its source, there is abidance in the heart.  "The ignorant one does not know that at such times thought has entered the Heart, but one in samadhi knows it," says Maharshi.

The spiritual practice recommended by Maharshi is vichara, the profound "enquiry" into the question, "Who am I," or "Who is it that thinks thoughts?"  In correspon­dence to Maharshi's psycho-physical model, the enquiry begins a "churning" in the nadis which progressively separates the amrita nadi from the other nadis allowing the Self to shine forth, free of all entanglements.